The field of the present invention is prize drawing games of chance and methods of entering and playing such games.
Games of chance, and prize drawings in particular, are well known in the art. However, prize drawings typically require the entrant to purchase, directly or indirectly, a chance to win the offered prize. For example, theaters use patrons' numbered ticket stubs as entry forms in prize drawings; but the theater patron is required, at least indirectly and incidentally, to pay money for a chance to win the drawing, since the patron has an opportunity to participate in such a drawing only because he has purchased a theater ticket bearing a numbered stub.
Such "purchase-required-for-entry" games of chance are legally problematical in many states, as many jurisdictions prohibit or heavily regulate games of chance in which something of value must be given by the participant in order to have a chance at winning the prize.
The use of cash register receipt tapes which bear printed discount coupons for in-store or other-store purchases of goods or services is also known in the art; but the coupons do not function as entry forms in a prize drawing game of chance. Instead, the bearer of the coupon presents it at a store where it is accepted as payment or part payment for the service, or for the item of merchandise, to which the coupon pertains. For this reason and others, the use of cash register receipt tapes as a vehicle for disseminating discount coupons differs markedly from the use of such tapes according to the present invention, as a vehicle for disseminating game-of-chance entry forms.